The Muppets may no longer belong to The Jim Henson Company, but the late puppeteer’s daughter, Heather Henson, is far from finished with puppetry as an art form. Over the last decade, Henson has been joined by independent artists via her company, IBEX Puppetry, for a number of curated short films that utilize various forms of puppetry. Now, fans will finally get a chance to see 10 of those shorts on the FilmStuck VOD service under the banner of Handmade Puppet Dreams.
Via Wizard, the Handmade Puppet Dreams series is being produced by both Henson’s IBEX Puppetry and The Jim Henson Company. As you can see in the video above, each of the shorts included in Handmade Puppet Dreams offers a different take on the medium, with at least one short that appears to use old school Muppets. One of the most intriguing shorts is Toby Froud’s Lessons Learned, which seems to have creatures that look like they escaped from The Dark Crystal. That’s probably not a coincidence, since Froud’s father, Brian Froud, was a concept designer for Dark Crystal.
We’re also quite interested in Yamasong, a fantasy short directed by Sam Koji Hale. But all of the shorts teased in this compilation video bring something new to the table. Some add animation to enhance the storytelling, while others seemingly strip the artifice away from the puppetry by allowing the manipulations and even the puppeteers themselves to operate in plain sight.
You can watch Jim Henson’s collection of early short films now streaming on Filmstruck.
Are you excited to see this collection of puppetry shorts? Cut your strings and share your thoughts below!
Images: IBEX/FilmStruck
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